This is the main idea that you want to make about the topic. It should state in one sentence what your paragraph is going to be about. E.g. While the Muslim empires of the 14th-16th centuries had significant impacts on the world, they never came to dominate as Europe will because... (remember "rule of 3")
While the Muslim empires of the 14th-16th centuries had a significant impacts on the world, they never came to dominate as Europe ill because of poor leadership, centralization of power, and religious corruption.
Elaboration
Write one or two sentences explaining your topic sentence. E.g. location? time period?
It became traditional that brothers would fight to the death over the sultan spot, causing incapable rulers over the empire. The weak rulers segregated religions that eventually leaded to more violence. Also, the huge empire grew to an a size so large that it became hard to control.
Examples/Evidence
Explain specific evidence/examples for your 3 choices in your topic sentence.
Members of the royal family would carry out acts of fratricide to gain power for themselves.
Shah Abbas and Sulieman both killed their talented sons, fearing their power would be taken away. However, this just resulted in a poor leadership after them, by their weak grandsons.
- The empire was so large that it began to crumble from within The empires (specifically the Mughal) did not feel loyal to their emperor.
- Hindis and the Muslims are hierarchized, causing disorder in the empire. The Shi'a and the Sunni conflict still exists today because of the hatred that started back then.
Explanation/analysis
This is a crucial part of the paragraph which requires some thought. Here, you need to explain how the evidence/examples you provided support your main idea in the topic sentence. WHY did you choose these reasons over others? Give specific reasons AND how they explain the failure of the Muslim empires to achieve world dominance at that time.. E.g. Clearly the administrative methods used by some of the leaders of the Muslim Empires hurt their ability to rise to world dominance because...This should be about 4 sentences in length.
If the talented sons of the sultans have ruled, the Muslim influence on the world would have been much greater because of the glory and success of the empire would have been preserved better than the weaker grandson leaders' efforts. If Shah Abbas did not kill his most capable son, then perhaps the Safavid empire could have conquered more land, just as Shah Abbas did. And after 2 million people dying in a famine and the emperor doing nothing about it, the Mughals did not feel loyal to Aurangzeb, the emperor, anymore. The central power was weakened while the local power grew, which made controlling a huge empire (and a very hungry empire, at that) very difficult. And finally, the religious conflict, Sunnis vs Shi'a and the Hindi vs Muslims, caused not only hatred within the empire but violence as well. I think that this was a crucial point in the fall of the empires because it segregated many people, in terms of social class.
Link Sentence
This sentence summarizes your paragraph and links back to the main idea in the topic sentence. When writing an essay, the role of the this sentence is to link paragraph back to your thesis.
- The Islamic World had so much potential in dominating Europe because of their vast empires and advanced technology. However, unstable leaders, an uncontrollably large empire, and religious dissent caused the great Muslim empire to, inevitably, fall.
Topic Sentence
This is the main idea that you want to make about the topic. It should state in one sentence what your paragraph is going to be about. E.g. While the Muslim empires of the 14th-16th centuries had significant impacts on the world, they never came to dominate as Europe will because... (remember "rule of 3")
While the Muslim empires of the 14th-16th centuries had a significant impacts on the world, they never came to dominate as Europe ill because of poor leadership, centralization of power, and religious corruption.Elaboration
Write one or two sentences explaining your topic sentence. E.g. location? time period?
It became traditional that brothers would fight to the death over the sultan spot, causing incapable rulers over the empire. The weak rulers segregated religions that eventually leaded to more violence. Also, the huge empire grew to an a size so large that it became hard to control.
Examples/Evidence
Explain specific evidence/examples for your 3 choices in your topic sentence.
Members of the royal family would carry out acts of fratricide to gain power for themselves.
Shah Abbas and Sulieman both killed their talented sons, fearing their power would be taken away. However, this just resulted in a poor leadership after them, by their weak grandsons.- The empire was so large that it began to crumble from within
The empires (specifically the Mughal) did not feel loyal to their emperor.
- Hindis and the Muslims are hierarchized, causing disorder in the empire. The Shi'a and the Sunni conflict still exists today because of the hatred that started back then.
Explanation/analysis
This is a crucial part of the paragraph which requires some thought. Here, you need to explain how the evidence/examples you provided support your main idea in the topic sentence. WHY did you choose these reasons over others? Give specific reasons AND how they explain the failure of the Muslim empires to achieve world dominance at that time.. E.g. Clearly the administrative methods used by some of the leaders of the Muslim Empires hurt their ability to rise to world dominance because...This should be about 4 sentences in length.
If the talented sons of the sultans have ruled, the Muslim influence on the world would have been much greater because of the glory and success of the empire would have been preserved better than the weaker grandson leaders' efforts. If Shah Abbas did not kill his most capable son, then perhaps the Safavid empire could have conquered more land, just as Shah Abbas did. And after 2 million people dying in a famine and the emperor doing nothing about it, the Mughals did not feel loyal to Aurangzeb, the emperor, anymore. The central power was weakened while the local power grew, which made controlling a huge empire (and a very hungry empire, at that) very difficult. And finally, the religious conflict, Sunnis vs Shi'a and the Hindi vs Muslims, caused not only hatred within the empire but violence as well. I think that this was a crucial point in the fall of the empires because it segregated many people, in terms of social class.
Link Sentence
This sentence summarizes your paragraph and links back to the main idea in the topic sentence. When writing an essay, the role of the this sentence is to link paragraph back to your thesis.
- The Islamic World had so much potential in dominating Europe because of their vast empires and advanced technology. However, unstable leaders, an uncontrollably large empire, and religious dissent caused the great Muslim empire to, inevitably, fall.